3
1 I
said,
“Please listen,
you heads of
Jacob,
and rulers of
the house of
Israel:
Isn’t it for you
to know justice?
2 You
who hate the
good,
and love the evil;
who tear off
their skin,
and their flesh
from off their
bones;
3 who
also eat the flesh
of my people,
and peel their
skin from off
them,
and break their
bones,
and chop them
in pieces, as
for the pot,
and as meat
within the cauldron.
4 Then
they will cry
to the LORD,
but he will
not answer them.
Yes, he will hide
his face from
them at that
time,
because they made
their deeds evil.”
5 The
LORD says
concerning the
prophets who lead
my people astray—for
those who feed
their teeth, they
proclaim, “Peace!”
and whoever doesn’t provide
for their mouths,
they prepare war
against him:
6 “Therefore
night is over
you, with no
vision,
and it is
dark to you,
that you may not
divine;
and the sun
will go down
on the prophets,
and the day
will be black
over them.
7 The
seers shall be disappointed,
and the diviners
confounded.
Yes, they shall
all cover their
lips,
for there is
no answer
from God.”
8 But
as for me,
I am full
of power by
the LORD’s Spirit,
and of judgment,
and of might,
to declare to
Jacob his disobedience,
and to Israel
his sin.
9 Please
listen to this,
you heads of
the house of
Jacob,
and rulers of
the house of
Israel,
who abhor justice,
and pervert all
equity,
10 who
build up Zion
with blood,
and Jerusalem
with iniquity.
11 Her
leaders judge for
bribes,
and her priests
teach for a
price,
and her prophets
of it tell fortunes
for money;
yet they lean
on the LORD,
and say,
“Isn’t the LORD
among us?
No disaster
will come on us.”
12 Therefore
Zion for your
sake will be
plowed like a
field,
and Jerusalem
will become heaps
of rubble,
and the mountain
of the temple
like the high
places of a
forest.